08 December 2006

O, Canada! And More.

Pictured here: three pounds of dry-farmed Early Girl tomatoes from Molina Creek Farm here in Santa Cruz, being slow-roasted the Godiva way. Scroll down for the view of how they look after two hours in the oven.

Received from Cynthia Sandberg via e-mail yesterday (I've been too ill to write until now). Bad bad news from the Canadian government (and I'd always thought they were so much more intelligent than our government!).

Speaking of Cynthia, her farm will be featured on In Wine Country on December 16th (Saturday at 6:30 p.m.) on NBC, and again on the 18th.

The following was received from Sally Fallon and Bill Sanda at the Weston A. Price Foundation.

Dear Members,We are sending this important Alert to all members. The incident has widespread implications, not only for the raw milk movement but for the basic right to farm, and the outcome could affect America and other nations as well as Canada.

Background
On Tuesday, November 21, Glencolton Farms in Durham, Ontario, Canada
was raided by agents of the Ministry of Natural Resources, the
enforcement arm of the Ministry of Health. The proprietor of Glencolton
Farms, Michael Schmidt, has operated a cow-share program without
incident for the past eleven years. (For background, visit
http://realmilk.com/real-milk-canada.html.)

On the morning of November 21, Michael loaded up the vehicle that
carries his goods into Toronto - the famous Blue Bus that arrives at
the Toronto Waldorf School every Tuesday. There, the shareholders line
up to receive the products of their cows. But as Michael drove out of
the laneway, the bus was surrounded by a swarm of armed Ministry of
Natural Resources officers approaching from all sides. They presented
Michael with a search warrant and, for the next seven-and-a-half hours,
the investigators searched, questioned and confiscated.

The six individuals who live and/or work on the Farm were ordered to
stay in the kitchen. Visits to other areas of the house or outdoors had
to be conducted accompanied by an officer. Two investigators from the
Ministry of Finance also arrived and spent several hours in the office,
eventually leaving with one computer hard drive, its monitor and
keyboard, back-up CDs and boxes of paper files.

The investigating officers were very polite, respectful and, somewhat
surprised, it seemed, at the farm crew's friendliness and cooperation.
Michael and his son Markus filmed much of their activities. Every
bottle of milk, cultured milk, quark, cream and sour cream, along with
fresh cheese, that had been put on the bus was confiscated . . . and
then dumped into a local landfill site in the contaminated substances
area! The farm's cheese-making and other dairy equipment was completely
dismantled and carted off.

On Thursday, two days after the raid, Michael Schmidt publicly vowed to
continue distributing raw milk products and announced that he had begun
a hunger strike to back his demand that the provincial government stop
interfering with the business. Schmidt, 51, told the gathering of
press, supporters and interested individuals, held at his family farm
northeast of Durham, that he will live on one glass of milk a day until
his milk processing equipment is returned. He also wants the province
to compensate the 150 families he supplies with raw milk products for
their loss when their food was seized. He's also demanding the
province's assurance that it will not interfere in his unpasteurized
milk operation until or unless the matter is resolved in court or in
the provincial legislature.

"Eleven and a half years ago, when I asked (the government) for
co-operation in researching the raw milk issue and they turned me down,
I said I would go ahead alone and if (they) interfered again with legal
action I would go on a hunger strike . . . I'm simply following up on
what I had promised at that time," he said.

According to Schmidt, the government has been fabricating stories that
link milk products from his farm to two cases of sick children last
summer. He said that it was common knowledge that they had become sick
from eating tainted hamburger meat. The family was unknown to Schmidt,
were not members of his cow share program and did not consume his
unpasteurized milk.

Bill Murdoch, Member of the Provincial Parliament (MPP) for
Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound in Ontario where Glencolton is located, has
expressed outrage at the strong-armed tactics used against the Schmidt
farm. He plans to introduce a private member's resolution on December
7, calling for an all-party task force to look into the issues
surrounding legalized sale of unpasteurized milk.

Thus, while the actions taken against Schmidt were inexcusable, this
situation actually presents a golden opportunity for positive change in
Canada, even perhaps legislation to legalize the direct sale of raw
milk.

Action To TakePlease take some time this weekend to write letters of outrage and protest. We ask all members, but especially Canadian members, to contact the individuals listed below. (You may also wish to contact federal Members of Parliament and the Toronto City Council posted at the links.) We have provided all the contact information that we have at this time.

Canadian readers should write a letter and fax it as well as send it through the post, as this carries much more weight than an e-mail. US readers should send e-mails, or have any Canadian friends or relatives send your letter for you from a Canadian address or fax.

Please stress the following points:- Ask for the immediate return of Michael Schmidt's property and compensation for the cow share holders so that this folk hero may end his hunger strike.- This is an issue of freedom of choice and the right to farm. - The Canadian constitution ensures the right of conscience and religion.- Describe how the consumption of raw milk has helped you and your family.- Remind them that good science shows that raw milk is safe.- Finally, urge them to end the harassment of small farmers and to take action to legalize the provision of raw milk through direct sales or cow-share programs.

Honourable David RamsayMinister of Natural Resources,(Note: it was armed agents of the Ministry of Natural Resources that raided the farm so much pressure needs to be put on this individual) 6630 - 99 Wellesley Street W.Whitney BlockToronto, OntarioM7A 1W3Telephone: 416-314-2301; 705-647-5995Toll-free: 1-888-701-1105Fax: 416 314 2216 and 705-647-1976dramsay.mpp@liberal.ola.org

Ontario Members of Provincial Parliamenthttp://www.ontariotenants.ca/government/mpp.phtml

Members of Parliament (Federal)http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/about/people/house/PostalCode.asp?Language=E- :

Members of Toronto City Councilhttp://app.toronto.ca/im/council/councillors.jsp

• • • • • • • • • • •

So the rest of this post just disappeared in an edit, so I will reconstruct the rest of it later. Meanwhile, Bob was awarded permanent legal custody of our beautiful little Logan, and we are much relieved. "Permanent" depends on many things, but for now, he's happy and thriving and wonderful.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: “A child of five would understand this. Send someone to fetch a child of five.” — Groucho Marx

Comments

Tana, that is awesome news about Logan. I know it means an extended period of parenting for you and Bob, at a time when that should be slacking off for you both...but clearly, your efforts have meant everything to that little boy. He is SO blessed.

I've been watching this story with great interest, and plan to blog about it soon. Thank you for posting all of this in detail... it's really scary how aggressively these farmers are being pursued for peddling raw milk...